Crazy idea?

[PFHC]

Which is my specialty.

We own a house in Maine that is livable, but needs work before it can be rented or sold. We are moving in three weeks to Greenville, SC for a new job. There is no time to do the work before we go.

What if we found a renter who was willing to do work on our Maine place for reduced rent? Bill it on an hourly rate. $20/hr, work up to free for the month (50 hours). Had a property manager to manage the rent and problems, and a close builder friend of mine to oversee the work.

Nuts? Or a bad ass work around? Would love to hear your thoughts!

[Dicey]

Oh boy, how much do you trust your close builder friend? Ditto for the property manager? Do the two of them know each other? Have they worked together before?

This is a very risky move IMO. Unless you can find a unicorn of a tenant, I'd proceed with extreme caution and skepticism. Understand that you must draw up a very specific, detailed agreement and you must monitor the crap out of the situation.

Good contractors are busy and when they get home from working hard all day, they don't necessarily want to tackle more projects, especially on a home they don't own, no matter what they agreed to initially.

It could work, but understand that it's going to require a fair amount of work from you, even with a PM and a close builder friend..

[expatartist]

Extremely risky. If you go for it, any rate agreed upon should be project-based, not hourly.

[PFHC]

Agreed with both of you. DUMB. Dumb dumb.

[Goldielocks]

Unless the renter is actually your contractor brother, who will co-own the property as an investment with you (taking a share of profit in lieu of capital), I say that you are NUTS!  NUTTY! NUTTO!


It is ok to pay a renter for work, but always keep that separate from rent, or the nightmare of  accounting orvalidating  quality of work, or just laziness and lying take over.